New Delhi, May 12 -- This Japanese proverb captures something quietly devastating about frustration. Small creatures gnashing their teeth against something far larger than themselves. The image is almost comic. But the meaning is anything but.

It describes those who rage against power they cannot change. It speaks to people who exhaust themselves in futile anger. The grinding changes nothing. The little fish remain little fish. And yet they grind on regardless.

The proverb does not mock the little fish. It observes them with a kind of gentle compassion. Their frustration is understandable. Their situation is genuinely unfair. But the grinding serves no one, least of all themselves.

The closest English equivalent might be "barking up th...